I was, and still am a huge “Pokémon” fan. So it warms my heart to see the franchise reinvent itself in what could be the most popular Smart Phone game since “Angry Birds.”

Pokémon was met with insurmountable popularity in the late 90s. I know, I contributed greatly to its popularity. I loved the card game, the series, the Gameboy games, pretty much everything about the mysterious world. But with popularity invariably comes controversy.

The franchise was met with hate by church groups, episodes of the show were censored, and soon, accompanied by popularity, it became one of the most controversial franchises of its magnitude.

The controversy, and even the popularity probably weren’t in executive director Satoshi Tajiri’s mind when he sculpted the franchise. The idea for Pokémon stemmed from Tajiri’s fascination with insect collecting, which he loved to do as a kid. Continue reading →